Nation Briefs

Nation Briefs

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Fuel-efficiency rules to be re-examined

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the administration will re-examine federal requirements governing the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, moving forcefully against environmental regulations enacted under then-President Barack Obama that Trump says are stifling economic growth.

Trump revealed his plans in a speech at an automotive testing center near Detroit, where he also met with auto company executives and workers.

"This is going to be a new era for American jobs and job creation," Trump said at a round-table meeting at the American Center for Mobility.

The EPA under Obama had promulgated a rule for cars and trucks requiring a fleet-wide average of 36 mpg in real-world driving by 2025.

Trump's decision, while having no immediate effect, requires the Environmental Protection Agency to determine no later than April 2018 whether the 2022-2025 standards established are appropriate. If the EPA determines they are not appropriate, the agency will submit a new proposal next year.

Trump pays homage to Andrew Jackson * President Donald Trump is paying homage to a predecessor, Andrew Jackson, with the highest form of flattery. Trump says the nation's seventh president reminds him an awful lot of himself.

The president paid a visit Wednesday to The Hermitage Jackson's Nashville home to commemorate what would have been Jackson's 250th birthday. He hailed Jackson as "one of our great presidents" and described some of their similarities. He said Jackson was a fellow outsider who pledged to represent the forgotten worker and took on the Washington establishment.

Historians have been souring on the slave-owning president, whose Indian Removal Act of 1830 commissioned the forced removal of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands. More than 4,000 died during their journeys west.

Northeast digs out after storm * The Northeast was in dig-out mode Wednesday, a day after a treacherous storm packing strong winds and accompanying plummeting temperatures left some residents dealing with rock-hard ice and others with more than 2 feet of snow. The upshot: a late-season boost to the region's ski areas. …